Implementing 2-way SSL in Java using TLS and Self Signed Certificates part4

Debug the Client/Server Communication 


Entire Source Code of the tutorial here: 
https://github.com/illumine/articles/tree/master/Implementing-2-way-SSL-in-Java-using-TLS-and-Self-Signed-Certificates


This part depends on the:

• Communication credentials, or the Keystore/Trustore file created in Part-1
• Server implemented in Part-2
• Client implemented in Part-3

To start with we need to include on our JVM arguments on both client and server the following option:
-Djavax.net.debug=all

So for example to run the server we do:
$ java TwoWaySslServer -Djavax.net.debug=all

As a result, we have all the debugging information we need for network operations from the JVM and the imported classes, like SSLServerSocket.

Having our server in debug mode, we can observe that the Keystore (mysystem.jks) was loaded correctly if we notice the following private key log entry:

***
found key for : mysystem
chain [0] = [
[
  Version: V3
  Subject: CN=mysystem, L=Chalandri, ST=Athens, C=GR
  Signature Algorithm: SHA256withRSA, OID = 1.2.840.113549.1.1.11

  Key:  Sun RSA public key, 1024 bits
  modulus: 127165120252867655295291767293201905001859144644390543231567027664179957281793248832544049047501722299712701237862474932181664724853946779349563166371011412260964043029373627517538842247060193170649833260910804612805979354599504164270912367917881965338674535760796311997608873587262396297225200721624071184029
  public exponent: 65537
  Validity: [From: Wed Jan 22 12:46:44 CET 2014,
               To: Mon Jan 22 12:46:44 CET 2024]
  Issuer: CN=mysystem, L=Chalandri, ST=Athens, C=GR
  SerialNumber: [    af1b0164 bd3095fa]

Certificate Extensions: 3
[1]: ObjectId: 2.5.29.35 Criticality=false
AuthorityKeyIdentifier [
KeyIdentifier [
0000: 03 B2 09 B4 89 36 32 E4   D6 A3 51 4A 5D 3B CD ED  .....62...QJ];..
0010: B2 00 77 EC                                        ..w.
]

]

[2]: ObjectId: 2.5.29.19 Criticality=false
BasicConstraints:[
  CA:true
  PathLen:2147483647
]

[3]: ObjectId: 2.5.29.14 Criticality=false
SubjectKeyIdentifier [
KeyIdentifier [
0000: 03 B2 09 B4 89 36 32 E4   D6 A3 51 4A 5D 3B CD ED  .....62...QJ];..
0010: B2 00 77 EC                                        ..w.
]
]

]
  Algorithm: [SHA256withRSA]
  Signature:
0000: 78 58 C9 F5 C0 42 2D 62   B5 0D 8A 79 6B 57 5A 85  xX...B-b...ykWZ.
0010: 8C 85 20 4D 7B B3 8A 0A   DF 83 D9 D1 5A FA F6 26  .. M........Z..&
0020: 53 56 DB FE B3 82 42 35   0C BF E8 BD 75 0A 18 7A  SV....B5....u..z
0030: D7 B0 36 E5 4E F9 82 FB   23 57 EC 23 3F D0 92 9E  ..6.N...#W.#?...
0040: 9C D6 FA 26 32 7C B6 4A   62 A4 4B AB F7 D3 64 7C  ...&2..Jb.K...d.
0050: 37 92 ED F2 2B 62 BC E7   A6 35 E6 87 67 9E BD 0D  7...+b...5..g...
0060: 97 5E 0F 31 A9 B1 AB 64   CC F9 4B 51 3E 90 7B 2F  .^.1...d..KQ>../
0070: E9 2E 23 E5 BC D3 DA 32   20 3B 6C 2C B8 E2 7C 6B  ..#....2 ;l,...k

]

If we don´t find our private key in the above debugging information, we need to check again the parameters:

  System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStore","mysystem.jks");
  System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword","welcome");

Similarly again in debugging mode, we can observe that the Trustore (mysystem.jks) was loaded correctly from server if we notice the following log entry:

***
trustStore is: mysystem.jks
trustStore type is : jks
trustStore provider is : 
init truststore
adding as trusted cert:
  Subject: CN=mysystem, L=Chalandri, ST=Athens, C=GR
  Issuer:  CN=mysystem, L=Chalandri, ST=Athens, C=GR
  Algorithm: RSA; Serial number: 0xaf1b0164bd3095fa
  Valid from Wed Jan 22 12:46:44 CET 2014 until Mon Jan 22 12:46:44 CET 2024

trigger seeding of SecureRandom
done seeding SecureRandom
SERVER
 socket class: class com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLServerSocketImpl
 Socker address = 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
 Socker port = 8095
 Need client authentication = true
 Want client authentication = false
 Use client mode = false

If we don´t find the self signed certificate key in the above debugging information, we need to check again the parameters:

System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore","mysystem.jks");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword","welcome");

Some really interesting Exceptions you may come across while debugging your application:

javax.net.ssl.SSLException: Unrecognized SSL message, plaintext connection?
Caught on Server
Probably you have created the client socket with something like:

clientSocket = new Socket();

Instead of :

SSLSocketFactory factory = (SSLSocketFactory) SSLSocketFactory.getDefault();
clientSocket = (SSLSocket) factory.createSocket("localhost",port);

java.lang.IllegalStateException: KeyManagerFactoryImpl is not initialized
You have not initialized KeyManagerFactory object, meaning that you should call method init() with a valid KeyStore and Certificate Password:

  String keystoreFile = "/opt/mysystem/etc/mysystem.jks";
  String keystorePassword = "welcome";
  KeyStore ks = KeyStore.getInstance("JKS");
  ks.load(new FileInputStream(keystoreFile), keystorePassword );
  KeyManagerFactory kmf = KeyManagerFactory.getInstance("SunX509");
  kmf.init(ks,"myCertificatePassword");

java.security.cert.CertificateException: No X509TrustManager implementation avaiable
Check the trustrore. Ensure that property javax.net.ssl.trustStore is set appropriately.

javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: null cert chain
Received on server
Check that both Client and server share the trustore.
Check that trustore contains the same signed certificate

java.io.IOException: Keystore was tampered with, or password was incorrect
Check the Keystore password, system property javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword

Implementing 2-way SSL in Java using TLS and Self Signed Certificates part3

Step 3: The Client (Get the complete code here)


Entire Source Code of the tutorial here: 
https://github.com/illumine/articles/tree/master/Implementing-2-way-SSL-in-Java-using-TLS-and-Self-Signed-Certificates

The client also requires the Keystore/Trustore created in Part-1

Again in the client we have to do a couple of things similar to the server:

The first is to specify the Java Keystore/Trustore we created in  Part-1 of this article:

System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStore","mysystem.jks");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword","welcome");

System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore","mysystem.jks");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword","welcome");

Similarly with the server side described in Part-2, we have to create the client socket as an SSLSocket:

SSLSocketFactory factory = (SSLSocketFactory) SSLSocketFactory.getDefault();    
SSLSocket sslSock = (SSLSocket) factory.createSocket("localhost",8095);

The entire code of the client can be downloaded here.

Next article, Part-4, of this Blog series will assist you to debug the SSL/TLS client/server communication.

Implementing 2-way SSL in Java using TLS and Self Signed Certificates part2

Step 2: The server (Get the complete server code here)


Entire Source Code of the tutorial here: 
https://github.com/illumine/articles/tree/master/Implementing-2-way-SSL-in-Java-using-TLS-and-Self-Signed-Certificates


Requires the Trustore/Keystore created in Step-1.

To write the server process in Java is pretty simple. You just have to do a couple of steps:
Specify a couple of properties so that the Trustore/Keystore can be loaded like the following code fragment shows:

System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStore","mysystem.jks");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.keyStorePassword","welcome");

System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore","mysystem.jks");
System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword","welcome");

Create the ServerSocket as anSSLServerSocketlike the following code fragment shows:

 
char ksPass[] = "welcome".toCharArray();
char ctPass[] = "welcome".toCharArray();

//Create and load the Keystore
KeyStore ks = KeyStore.getInstance("JKS");
ks.load(new FileInputStream("ianalyzer.jks"), ksPass);
KeyManagerFactory kmf = KeyManagerFactory.getInstance("SunX509");
kmf.init(ks, ctPass);

//Create the ServerSocket as an SSLServerSocket
SSLContext secureSocket = SSLContext.getInstance("TLS");
secureSocket.init(kmf.getKeyManagers(), null, null);
SSLServerSocketFactory ssf = secureSocket.getServerSocketFactory();
ssocket = (SSLServerSocket) ssf.createServerSocket(8095);
SSLServerSocket ss = (SSLServerSocket) ssocket;

//This explicitly states TLS with 2-way authentication
ss.setNeedClientAuth(true); 

The entire code for server implementation can be downloaded here.

Implementing 2-way SSL in Java using TLS and Self Signed Certificates part1

Consider that we want to implement in Java a secure communication (Transport Layer Security ) for a system called MySystem.

Entire Source Code of the tutorial here: 
https://github.com/illumine/articles/tree/master/Implementing-2-way-SSL-in-Java-using-TLS-and-Self-Signed-Certificates

The problem

The security scenario for the implementation of  MySystem is simple:

• Authentication only between peers that both share the Keystore/Trustore file
• Session establishment only between peers that have the Keystore/Trustore file

Doing so, the entire communication between client and server requires authentication and is encrypted:

Before going further on this study, pay a visit to this site for Java SSL: ssljavaguide.

To implement the scenario, there are three basic steps:

1. Create the Java Keystore/Trustore that will be used for Authentication and Encryption of Transport/Session. This will be used from both Client and Server parties. (Current Part)
2. Implement the Client side: (See blog article Part-2)
3. Implement the Server side: (See blog article Part-3)

Part-4 deals with debugging the Client/Server SSL/TLS communication.

Step 1: Create the Keystore/Trustore
Following steps of this section, results in the creation of a  Keystore/Trustore .jks file that contains:

• MySystem Private key 
• MySystem Selfsigned Certificate

To do so we are going to use the tools openssl  and keytool. We prefer using openssl because it can work silently - without prompt the user to put passwords, domains, server names....

The steps are:
1) Generate RSA 1024 bit private key. The key will be password protected:
openssl genrsa -out mysystem.key 1024 -passin pass:welcome

2) Generate Certificate Request for CA (.csr) using the private key
openssl req -x509 -sha256 -new -subj '/C=GR/ST=Athens/L=Chalandri/CN=mysystem'  -key mysystem.key -out mysystem.csr

3) Generate self signed certificate expiry-time 10 years from the certificate request
openssl x509 -sha256 -days 3652 -in mysystem.csr -signkey mysystem.key -out mysystem.crt


4) Import the pair (private key and selfsigned certificate) in a new JKS (Trustore/Keystore together)
First we need to create PKCS12 keystore from private key and self signed certificate.
openssl pkcs12 -export -name mysystem -in mysystem.crt -inkey mysystem.key -out mysystem.p12 -passin pass:welcome -password pass:welcome

Then we need to convert PKCS12 keystore into a JKS keystore
keytool -importkeystore -destkeystore mysystem.jks -srckeystore mysystem.p12 -srcstoretype pkcs12 -alias mysystem -srcstorepass welcome  -storepass welcome  -noprompt

At this point we have created the Java  Keystore/Trustore mysystem.jks file.

Copy mysystem.jks on both client and server machines.

Download all the commands for the Keystore/Trustore .jks file generation here